Age, Gender Determine 'Go-To' Devices

TV going by wayside for young consumers

As a source for news and entertainment, television reigns supreme—for now. An online survey of over 2,000 US adults carried out for Belkin by Harris Interactive found that men and women of every age group expected TV to be their primary source for both news and entertainment in 2013. This was more true of women than men, and of older people than younger people.

In the 18- to 34-year-old demographic in particular, TV’s edge is slipping. Just 30% of that group said they expected TV to be their primary source of news and entertainment this year, with 28% saying it will instead be their laptop computer, and another 17% citing their smartphone.

Computers were already cited by the greatest percentage of internet users as the technology that would see the most use in 2013. Women were slightly more likely than men to gravitate towards TV, but they also showed a greater preference for tablets and smartphones; men were more likely to list computers and gaming consoles as their “go-to” devices.

There are signs that, for general use, members of the younger generation might eventually consider themselves “post-computing.” 18- to 44-year-olds were significantly less likely than older people to expect to use the computer most often—in many cases citing smartphones or tablets instead.

Accordingly, 18- to 34-year-olds were also most likely to imagine themselves in a post-laptop world. Nearly four in 10 either strongly or somewhat agreed that they might one day trade in their laptop for a tablet. But laptops are not going anywhere anytime soon: 32% strongly disagreed.